Reputation Management in a Digital World (edX)

You will experience:

• how to build a robust and sustainable online reputation
• the positives of building a strong participatory culture
• how to manage social media issues based on a real-life examples
• how to manage a crisis and respond appropriately across multiple platforms.

Throughout the course, you’ll learn from real life case studies and gain an understanding of the important role that blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and other social platforms play in today’s business world.
The digital landscape is fast-paced and continually changing, yet is an equally challenging and exciting environment in which to work. This course is relevant to anyone working in marketing, communications, public relations, social media and advertising.
This course is part of the Marketing in a Digital World MicroMasters.

You'll learn how to:

• manage an organisation’s online reputation
• apply reputational management principles to manage online issues and crises
• build a strong participatory culture to engage your audience.

Syllabus

Week 1: Corporate reputation in the digital age
In this module you will:

• identify what a corporate reputation is and why it is important
• examine how the digital age has affected reputation management
• identify the types of reputational risk that exist online and the difference between an issue and a crisis

Week 2: Reputation and participatory culture
In this module you will:

• explain what participatory culture is and why it is important
• utilise the audience as co-creator of the story and brand
• recommend ways in which to build a strong participatory culture

Week 3: How online has changed the media cycle
In this module you will:

• examine how the traditional media cycle has changed and the broader definition of who ‘the media’ is now
• explain how online reputation affects offline reputation and whether an organisation can separate the two

Week 4: Managing reputation online
In this module you will:

• examine how to build a reputation – conversation and coverage
• demonstrate how to protect a reputation in times of adversity
• monitor your reputation and act on issues

Week 5: Protecting a Reputation: when it goes wrong, crisis response
In this module you will:

• identify ways to embrace online negativity/criticism
• explain how to respond to a crisis online
• debrief after a crisis and evaluate your response

Week 6: Towards best practice reputation management
In this module you will:

• examine how ethics relates to corporate reputation
• articulate how to be authentic and speak ‘beyond the corporate voice’
• compare best practice in building a sustainable corporate brand online